Single NIC operation?

[mystereman]

I have an ESX 3.5 server that I am planning to upgrade to vSphere 4, and at the same time move it to a co-location facility in which I will have only a single NIC attachment to the internet, and no other computers to manage it.

Let me start out by saying I'm not an expert with ESX, so my experience is with basic setups, no HBAs, strictly local storage. I know under older versions of ESX (2.x, and i think 3.0. I'm not sure about 3.5) you had to setup the Service Console on a seperate NIC from the NIC used by the virutal machines. Is this still true? Or can I configure the Service Console and vNIC's on the same interface, and both manage the server remotely and allow the VM's to interface with the internet off the same subnet?

I'm also curious if the service console is encrypted. I think it is, but I want to make sure.

[marcelo_soares · Accepted solution]

1. You can use the same nic for VMs and Service Console, no need to separate it.

2. You can use the same subnet from VMs to the Service Console

3. Communications between the vSphere/Vi3 Client and ESX are SSL encrypted.

If this will be internet available, consider doing a security hardening as described here:

http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/vi35_security_hardening_wp.pdf

Is for ESX 3.5 but you can read to apply it to vSphere. There are several papers on communities also about this.

Marcelo Soares

VMWare Certified Professional 310/410

Virtualization Tech Master

Globant Argentina

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